Invention and use of novelty belts is known to the public. As for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,458,188 issued to Infante in 1969 discloses a pair of novelty belts that are joined together with an elongated elastic strap so that the wearers of the belts may dance face-to-face as an attached team. The joining strap between the belts may include signal lights that are actuated in accordance with the tension between the belts.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,715,839 issued to Ford et al. in 1987 discloses a novelty belt/toy combination in which the outer surface of the belt buckle has a strip of Velcro.TM. on it so that a toy, such as a miniature car, with a corresponding strip of Velcro.TM. can be secured to and removed from the belt as desired by the user.
Invention and use of audio sound effect toys are also known to the public. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,233 issued to Weiner in 1989 discloses a battery powered sound-producing amusement device for use in talking dolls, talking books, and any other talking-type toys. The invention has a read-only memory with recorded digital data of the desired sound effects, and a sound-producing unit for producing the sounds represented by the digital data recorded in the read-only memory.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,447 issued to Goldfarb in 1992 discloses a verbal sound toy that uses a microprocessor to produce one song or poem that has at least one space that allows the user to select a supplementary verbal sound segment to complete the song. The user selects the segment by pushing a button with a picture that corresponds with the desired segment. Preferably, the toy is thematic, with all of the selectable segments relating to a single subject, such as animals.
Another example of an audio toy is U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,810 issued to Kwan et al. in 1992. This invention is disclosed as an accessory to another toy, for example, as a backpack for a toy action figure. The toy audio device is an enclosure with a speaker and a plurality of batteries. A printed circuit board containing circuitry for generating audio signals is located in a space alongside the speaker under a side wall of the enclosure.
Obviously then, both novelty belts and audio toys are popular and well known to the public. However, the prior art discloses few inventions that integrate these two popular devices into a single novelty toy. The only such prior art combination is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,515 issued to Hyman et al. in 1994. In this invention the neck and head portion of a hobby horse is secured to the user's waist by a belt. A rein switch is supported within the interior of the horse's head and is responsive to pulling action upon the reins. A motion sensing switch is also supported within the head portion of the hobby horse and responds to motion of the user and hobby horse, and a pair of pressure sensitive switches are disposed proximate the forehead and mouth portions of the hobby horse and respond to simulated feeding and petting actions by the user. A sound producing circuit includes a battery powered system, a speaker and a sound sensitizing circuit that provides a plurality of sound outputs responsive to play activities sensed by the switches.
While this device effectively produces sounds triggered by the various motions of the user, it does not allow the user to select and actuate desired sound effects, nor does it allow sound effects to be emitted in a series. The design of the invention also limits it to sound effects dealing strictly with a horse theme. The present invention overcomes these disadvantages and provides further related advantages as described in the following summary.